Wham! 10 Days in China review – pop meets politics in George and Andrew’s great leap east

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The duo’s groundbreaking 1985 tour reveals a strange collision of pop stardom and communism, a re-edit of Lindsay Anderson’s efforts that got him fired Here is a documentary that has a very important story to tell, maybe more important than it feels comfortable admitting. It’s about two separate subjects – or maybe three: Wham!, China and film-maker Lindsay Anderson. A superpower nervously edging towards western-style openness, a pop band nervously doing what needed to be done to make it big in the US, and a great film director, needing the money, taking on a project he didn’t really believe in. In 1985, Wham!’s beetle-browed manager Simon Napier-Bell had a cunning plan for how George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley could break the US: Wham! would be the first ever western pop band to perform in mainland China. They would play where the Beatles, the Stones and Elvis had never played, and the resulting global publicity would launch them into the US. (He was right – it did.) In our modern ag...
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Sublime review – refreshingly understated queer coming-of-age tale

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Avoiding schmaltzy pitfalls, this moving drama about two friends nearing adulthood offers a modern ideal of masculinity

Unlike many queer coming-of-age films – which can lapse into sentimental self-flagellation – Argentinian director Mariano Biasin’s light-touch drama handles the thorny process of coming out in refreshing fashion. Friends since childhood, Manu (Martín Miller) and Felipe (Teo Inama Chiabrando) are inseparable during their teenage years. When not playing together in a band, the pair hang out at the beach or simply lounge about in their rooms, talking about everything and nothing.

Though each has a girlfriend, their attitudes to dating are completely different. While Felipe has a van fitted out just for the purpose of hanky-panky, Manu’s first sexual experience leaves him with more questions than answers. Awakened to his desire for Felipe, Manu slips in and out of sexy daydreams as the struggle to hide his true feelings grows increasingly difficult.

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